Electric power cables, fiber optic cables, phone lines and other types of cables or wires are commonly enclosed in underground conduits, particularly in newer residential developments. When installing such underground cables, a string is often threaded into and positioned in a conduit before it is installed underground. Once the conduit has been buried, the ends of the string remain accessible. An end of the string is then connected to a pull line (e.g., a rope), so that by pulling the string through the other end of the conduit, the pull line is threaded into the conduit. Then, one end of the pull line is connected to a reel or spool of cable. The other end of the pull line is then pulled, often manually, to draw the cable through the conduit. Of course, such pulling of the cable through the conduit can be a laborious and time-consuming task, especially if particularly long lengths of cable are to be drawn through a conduit.
Although some forms of winches or other machines have been developed to assist in pulling cable through a conduit, such machines tend to be cumbersome and not easily re-positioned. Specifically, the size and complexity of such machines does not allow them to be readily moved from one location to another within a subdivision or similar area to rapidly complete multiple cable pulls.
Thus, there remains a need for an apparatus that can easily be maneuvered and re-positioned to efficiently complete multiple cable pulls within a subdivision or similar area.